“Lockdown 2.0 is certainly proving to be a bit tougher for the Auckland team of 1.5 million but across our New World, PAK’nSAVE and Four Square supermarkets customers are #shoppingnormal, masking up and working with our teams to ensure social distancing, sanitising and COVID-19 safety measures are working as we sort this together,” says Chris Quin CEO Foodstuffs North Island.
“On behalf of the Foodies team, I really want to thank New Zealand for resisting the urge to panic buy this time around. This really helps us deliver fully stocked shelves to all New Zealanders and ensures us amateur bakers have plentiful supplies of flour and as much TP as anyone could possibly desire,” adds Quin.
Foodstuffs has been getting a few questions around store cleaning protocols and Quin wants to share what the business is doing to keep both staff and customers safe.
“Right now, we are essentially running our stores like an undiagnosed COVID-19 case may have shopped with us any day,” says Quin. “I just want to let customers know that we operate as if it could have happened today.”
“Keeping our staff and customers safe is our first priority, this is why we are in constant contact with the relevant health authorities.
“Secondly, the DHB’s have been extremely supportive providing ongoing guidance and support to our teams and because of this we are confident that following their direction and maintaining the highest in-store cleaning and sanitisation measures is the best way we play our part and deliver for our shoppers.
“We are normally alerted to cases of COVID-19 that may have generated casual contact five to 10 days after the individual has been in-store which means not only has a store’s increased cleaning measures and sanitisation systems occurred multiple times each day since, it has also been closed each night and during that time has seen thorough cleaning and sanitisation as per our COVID cleaning protocols,” says Quin.
Quin understands that returning to Level 3 for Auckland and Level 2 throughout the rest of the country has been tough on New Zealanders – there is heightened stress and worry but he is confident the co-operative’s systems are robust and that the owners of each store are really focused on keeping their local community safe.
“Our focus is on making sure our in-store hygiene protocols are thorough, up to date with best practice and are teams are supported to follow the processes and ensure the highest levels of hygiene and cleaning are in place,” he adds.
“This fight against COVID-19 is ever changing, but we promise we will continue to do all we should to keep our people and customers safe and to enable access to the groceries New Zealanders need to feed their families. We are not taking our eye off the ball for one moment and we thank our customers for coming on the journey with us. It’s sometimes bumpy but we all have one shared goal – to manage COVID-19,” concludes Quin.
